Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb, Minister in the Department for Business, writes in Liberal Democrat Voice: Royal Mail and the Post Office are two of our most recognisable and most trusted brands. For hundreds of years the post office has been at the heart of our communities - with a value that goes beyond mere economics to the social and the symbolic. Royal Mail, meanwhile, is a service that covers every part of the country and reaches every part of society. The public, quite rightly, is fiercely protective of both institutions.Sadly previous governments left them both in a mess. Labour opened ...
Stephen Tall has also been looking at the British Council Film Collection, which I blogged about the other day and has posted this film from the 1945 general election and posted it on Liberal Democrat Voice. It is of particular interest to me because of the footage of Kettering and the surrounding countryside. In those days the constituency also included Corby, but at least some of the early shots of ironworks are from Kettering itself. Gilbert Mitchison held Kettering until he retired from the Commons at the 1964 general election. He then went to the Lords and became a junior ...
Twenty years ago today I was a candidate, nervously awaiting the outcome of my first electoral contest. I was fighting the Redland ward of Bristol City Council, where the Liberal Democrats had put in a derisory performance since the party's formation four years previously. The seat was held by the Tories but Labour had come ...
I know I'm not being great at keeping to my schedule, but the Kinks post will be up tomorrow – I've had a headache for a couple of days (that's why I've also not even read my email for a few days, if anyone's sent me anything important) and have decided to just rest rather ...
Please someone, remind me, are we in the 21st century? Does a London council need to be told what a Bank Holiday is in relation to parking restrictions? This absurd non-joined up parking system which can result in one side of a road having one set of rules and the other side, a totally conflicting ...
Reblogged from Raising My Rainbow: Homophobic North Carolina preacher Sean Norris recently gave a sermon in which he advocated physically assaulting gender variant toddlers. Listen to it here. This letter is my response to him. Dear Pastor Harris, Hi. I'm C.J.'s Mom and boy would you hate me! I have a little boy who likes ...
Mon 7th
22:20
Winning the Champions League will not prove Roberto Di Matteo should be Chelsea's next manager
Roberto Di Matteo has done brilliantly at Chelsea. He has won the FA Cup and may yet win the Champions League. He has done so by making what is still largely an ageing squad play much better than it did under the previous manager. It has happened before: Gus Hiddink somehow turned Drogba, Anelka and Malouda into a selfless front three who would make runs for one another. At present Chelsea are poised between their past and their future. Saturday's cup win saw Mata making the first goal for Ramieres (new Chelsea) and Lampard making the second for Drogba (old ...
This week's theme on 6.002x was hard sums. Second order differential equations to be precise. However, for anyone still struggling to get through the lectures, don't give up! It turns out that most of what we're expected to do is find the characteristic equations of second order circuits – and that's all. Certainly none of the lab work or homework required any difficult calculus. Being exposed to all the maths was simply meant to be good for the soul apparently. I suppose that it does make sense to have at least a vague understanding of why circuit problems involving resistors, ...
Earlier this evening, I attended the latest committee meeting of the Friends of Magdalen Green at which we principally concentrated on arrangements for our Annual General Meeting and Public Lecture on 15th May. Here's a reminder about the event - all residents very welcome!
Having got the serious post-election stuff out of the way it was onto the even more serious stuff – such as would my partner ever talk to me again, do my children know what I look like, how will I survive without the dulcet sound of the weapon dog or the irritation of the letterbox brushes. ...
House of Lords reform should not be an issue we should be debating. Reforming one entire third of the executive to be composed of democratically elected representatives is not a progressive idea. To widen the perspective, let's examine the military intervention Britain has become involved in in the last decade. Much of the justification for ...
On May 3rd election were carried out in many areas across South Cambridgeshire (although not here in Bar Hill). Liberal Democrats did fairly badly on the night losing two of the four Council seats we were defending (Linton Ward and Haslingfield and the Eversdens Ward). From the District Councils website; "The Conservative Party remained in overall control of the Council and now hold 33 seats, with the Liberal Democrats holding 16, Labour 1 and 7 Independent councillors making up the 57 seats in total. Overall voter turnout was just under 35%. Before the elections yesterday the political make-up of the ...
In Victorian times Southport used to advertise trips to the town under the marketing slogan 'visit the Lancashire Riviera'! Later on we promoted the resort as somewhere to come in winter because of our micro climate which produced mild weather when all around were suffering a freeze. It is well known that it is not just meteorolgically that we have a micro climate. For generation Southport has demonstrated that it can buck the national trend in politics. Southport is one of those northern chapel towns where Liberalism refused to lie down and die in the post war years. The Jewish ...
Last year the Greater Manchester Local Records Centre (GMLRC), which is attached to the Greater Manchester Ecology Unit (GMEU), submitted a bid to the National Heritage Lottery Fund - and the bid was successful. The resulting project, which will run for three years, is called 'From Grey to Green' and its aim is to encourage the people of Greater Manchester to appreciate and record the wildlife around them. I know that the Chair of the Friends of Chorlton Meadows thinks that this is a very exciting development and that the group should be involved as much as possible. Initially Steve ...
Away from local politics life goes on and I've been watching The Voice. Not only in the UK but also the American version and on the American version they have discovered a real talent. Step forward Miss Juliet Simms. The final is tonight and here are the videos of her performances so far: [IMG: Share on Tumblr] [IMG: Submit to StumbleUpon] [IMG: Save on Delicious] [IMG: Digg This] [IMG: Submit to reddit] [IMG: Share on Myspace] [IMG: Share via email] Tweet
FilmAustralia on YouTube have a fantastic collection of films. I've just watched a 1964 Department of Immigration film about Cairns and a similar one from 1967 about Sydney. There's a series of these "Life in Australia" films which, it seems, were aimed at attracting "Poms" to Aussie. There are also films showing Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart, Launceston, Mount Gambier and Wagga Wagga . The phrases "rose-tinted" and "different world" spring to mind, but the films offer fascinating glimpses of a (presumably) bygone era in Australia, and an interesting insight into film-making at the time (noone except the narrator is ...
I have received notification that an application has been received by the City Council for a Premises Licence variation for premises at Dixy Chicken, 450 Wilbraham Road, Manchester, M21 0AG. A summary of the application is as follows: Trading hours for the provision of late night refreshment: Mon to Tue: To extend the permitted hours from (2300 - 0100) to (2300 - 0200) Wed to Thur: To extend the permitted hours from (2300 - 0100) to (2300 - 0300) Fri to Sat: To extend the permitted hours from (2300 - 0200) to (2300 - 0400) Sun: To extend the permitted ...
I would like to say "Thank You" to all those in Meols ward who voted at the recent local election and also for re-electing me as a councillor. There have been many important issues raised during the election campaign, and I will continue to work to achieve the best possible outcome for Meols ward and Southport. I, and my two ward councillor colleagues, David Rimmer and Nigel Ashton will continue to keep in regular contact and offer help, regardless of politics, to all local residents. Cllr John Dodd
Yes, I admit, I nicked this from Stephen Tall's post on LDV... Maybe it will teach some people a few things... and if not it certainly highlights that even in 1945 they were concerned about apathy... (although probably not as much an issue as it is today) General Election (1945) from British Council Film on ... Read more
Comment from Cllr Nigel Roberts Unfortunately due to work commitments I can't attend this special planning meeting to consider planning enforcement at the Fuller Earth Site I would have liked to make the following comments: Although this development is not in Odd Down ward it does affect a lot of Odd Down residents in particular those living in Sulis Meadows. These residents have over the
There now follows a public information film... During the 1940s, the British Council produced more than 120 short films 'designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played'. They're now available online, and here's the Pathe-style feature on the 1945 electoral race in Kettering — or, as it's described in the British Council Film Department Catalogue: 'The film shows how the candidates, after completing the necessary formalities, plan their election campaigns with the help of their Agents and go round the district addressing the voters. What happens on Polling Day, how people vote, the precautions for secrecy, the ...
It hasn't been a good time of late for the Liberal Democrats. Our sister party in Germany, the Free Democratic Party, hasn't had it easy either. Liberal Democrats faced the ignominy of losing to a six-foot intergalactic penguin in Edinburgh and the FDP lost to a bunch of Pirates in Berlin. We both suffer the challenges of being a junior coalition partner. Nonetheless, their recent showing in the regional election in Schleswig-Holstein has confounded the critics. Widely tipped to fail to reach the necessary parliamentary threshold, they managed to secure a respectable 8.2% after a succession of poor results (Der ...
Shipston Community Arts All, In a desperate bid to have a topic that doesn't cause any controversy at all – Shipston Community Arts' latest newsletter can be found by clicking on this link. SCA's website is unfortunately down at the moment. If anyone out there with any website experience at all wants a completely unpaid job then please give me (or indeed anyone from SCA) a call! Regards, Philip
Like a lot of Lib Dems this Bank Holiday weekend I've been recovering from months of hard slog otherwise known as election campaigning. A diet of canvassing, leafleting, takeaways and late night phone calls isn't healthy for an extended period of time, so if you're feeling knackered - worry not – I have just the thing! In between resting aching legs/reminding friends and family what I look like/feeding the cats/watching the mayoral election/watching the French Presidential elections/sleeping I have put together a post-election playlist. I was partly inspired by the Obama 2012 team who compiled a Campaign Playlist on Spotify ...
Reblogged from : Well, its been coming. Another insignificant Twitter defection. I won't pretend that me jumping across to the Coalition's junior Party means anything will change, or that anybody even cares about me doing so. But, I do write here often. Surprisingly, and thankfully a couple of hundred of you give me a read ... Read more
Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email? Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there's new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day's posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want ...
Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of Iain Banks' work; he is just about the only author whose books I get when they are released in hardback, rather than wait on the paperback publication. I've also started reading his Science Fiction works, published as Iain M Banks, but for the sake of clarity references to his oeuvre in this review are specifically to the "non-M" books. After a number of books which failed to reach the heights of his previous works, his last book, Transition, was something of a return to form. It was with some ...
People seem, for the most part, to be opposed to young people being involved with politics, particularly when it comes to young candidates, be it for town, city, or the county councils, Assemblies or Parliament. Having recently been elected to Bangor City Council for Menai Ward, heard the local party's viewpoint – a reiteration of ...
Just 125m from the end of stage three of the Giro d'Italia today there was a massive crash that lead to both the pink and red jersey's hitting the deck hard. It was the second stage in a row that saw a crash in the final stages and some of those affected in that crash, especially Dennis van Winden (RAB), were struggling today covered in gauze. As the sprint was opening up Mark Cavendish (SKY) was riding fifth wheel with Matt Goss (OGE) at the front. But he had gone for space on the right and a gap developed behind ...
I stood in Ayr West for the LibDems on Thursday. This was the first time the LibDems had stood in the local area since 1992 so there was no pressure. All my opponents were incredibly nice and we all got on well. In fact, one of my fellow defeated opponents emailed me last night saying ...
For the first time in the South Werrington and North Gunthorpe wards history, there are now TWO Liberal Democrat FOCUS Team councillors representing and working hard for this area! Following this years local elections, local resident and FOCUS Editor, Julia Davidson was duly elected as the first ever female Lib Dem councillor for this area, defeating the incumbent Tory councillor, the results were as follows: Candidate Party Votes % vs 2011 Julia Davidson Lib Dem FOCUS Team 812 +3.4% Colin Burton Conservatives 762 -35% Scott Johnson Labour 347 -2% 2012 Election FACTS: * Turnout was 36%, the third highest in ...
It is our final day in Denmark but already this is a good Giro for team Sky. Geraint Thomas is still second in the overall classification thanks to his finish in the individual time trail around Herning. Then yesterday the man who is second in the race helped the world champion to yet another win here in Denmark, the country where Cavendish won the rainbow strips. The two of them were well up at the front, riding fifth and sixth wheels, ahead of a crash going into the finishing straight that caused a split in the peleton but because of ...
The entire premise of Red Dwarf rests on this one scene: Lister's cat is discovered because he takes a photo of the two of them and has it developed in the ship's photo lab. In 1988 – when Red Dwarf was first aired – nothing in the world seemed more natural than to get a photo developed in a lab. Today, however, the very thought is laughable. It seems as archaic as posting a letter, ringing a land line, or renting a video-tape. Red Dwarf gets a lot of things right in its grasp on the future. True, the Roomba ...
In today's Guardian, Nick Clegg declares the Coalition isn't about to lurch to the left or the right in the wake of the governing parties' bruising election results: "We spent two years on rescue. Now it's time for reform." Here are the three lessons Nick says he's drawing from last week... 1) The coalition must work harder to show that we are governing for the whole country Both coalition parties got thumped in Scotland, Wales and the north of England. People are afraid for their jobs and their children's prospects. In my own patch in Sheffield, I know that memories ...
Greek neo-Nazis' electoral breakthrough is worrying for all sorts of reasons (http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=268884). The Far Right actually joined the Greek Government last year with these new Golden Dawn people being not so much the Far Right as the Even Further Right. Without exaggerating the number of people who actually voted for Golden Dawn and the others, it is profoundly depressing to see fascists elected in a country that has Greece's modern history makes me think of a particular poem by the Greek poet CP Cavafy (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_P._Cavafy). Eighteen years ago, I was the assistant director on a production of ...
Voters in Nottingham are beginning to wake up to the realisation that they have just managed to avoid removing powers from democratically elected local councillors in order to put them somewhat precariously into the hands of a single person in ... Continue reading →
If this graph seems confusing, it's because it accurately describes taxation of income in the UK. What alternative can Lib Dems offer? I think there are four key problems and solutions. Firstly, while the personal allowance is rising (to £9,205 next year), the National Insurance thresholds lag behind. As I've written previously, raising these is more progressive and, so, equalising the thresholds and the allowance must be the priority before going beyond £10,000. Then there's the withdrawal of the personal allowance at £100,000. This is identical in effect to a 60% tax rate on income between £100,000 and £118,410. Considering ...
We reported recently that the operator of the 482/483 services from Chipping Sodbury via Yate, Frampton Cotterell, Winterbourne and Bradley Stoke to Cribbs Causeway intended to discontinue them from 20 May, saying that the services are no longer commercially viable. Following an emergency tender - so presumably a subsidy from South Glos - Wessex Connect will now run the service for a year, with increased journeys in the afternoon peak times.
In last years Total Politics I was awarded the title of 76th Best Lib Dem Blog - given that this is only my second post of 2012 I don't think I will be getting any honours like that this year. In January, I made a judgement call that I could either be a commentator or actually try do it for real, the "doing it for real" hasn't turned out as well as I had hoped so I'm back!! Ironically my first chosen topic on my return will be Greece - and maybe a touch of France to get a nicer ...
One encouraging aspect of Thursday's elections was the widespread rejection of the mayoral system of local government. Enthusiasm for that system is a hangover from Blairite heyday, when supporters of debate and discussion just did not get it and Richard Branson was expected to become the first elected mayor of London. The fact that David Cameron still shares that enthusiasm reminds us how much he has modelled his act on Tony Blair's and makes us suspect that, deep down, he is equally shallow. But the mayoral system is here to stay, in London and a few other cities. And that ...
crafty_tardis: DW at Free Hugs at Minsk, Belarus (: Who fans in Minsk. (tags: belarus doctorwho ) NYT: Those Revolting Europeans Krugman welcomes anti-austerity election results. (tags: greece france elections euro eu ) Climate ship plots course through the battering waves Crucial meeting happening in the building next to my office. (tags: eu climatechange )
Reblogged from Andrew McFarland Campbell: There has been a lot of talk about the dangers of gay marriage over the past few weeks. Allowing gay people to get married would, it is alleged, damage society and harm families. Not only that, but gay people themselves don't want to get married, as shown by the low ...
A little belatedly, I've got round to reading Vince Cable's memoirs (or rather, listening to the audio book version – what better accompaniment to a delivery round?). Vince Cable's memoirs do much to explain both the praise and the criticism he has received. At one point he writes how "I am often asked why I am not party leader...". Conceit or modesty? You can read that comment either way and it is easy to see why he produces such different views. Views differ too over quite where on the political spectrum Vince Cable should be placed. As left-wing former Labour ...
Mon 7th
10:03
A broken party and broken hearts: The election result shows we are asking the wrong questions
We had a small team but a committed one. We had a well respected sitting councillor along with other well respected former councillors. We came close in one area last year without even campaigning. The team went to ALDC Kickstart and attended all the sessions. We ran a campaign as close to the ALDC advice ...
Coalition Negotiations 2015. A Play. Sadly this is fiction. (tags: ) David Graeber: New Police Strategy in New York - Sexual Assault Against Peaceful Protestors « naked capitalism (tags: ) Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies Useful resource site. (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
The Guardian on 5th May 2012 had an article on Lords Reform: Queen's speech rebellion over Lords reform Leading Conservatives are angry that Lib Dem policy is being pursued rather than measures to boost the economy Yes Nick Clegg is ... Continue reading →
Democracy gives us checks and balances and stops power being held by a few people - or at least it should because if power is held by small groups or individuals then it has a different name like oligarchy or dictatorship. One check is to make sure that the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government are independent. Another method is to make sure there is at least one choice for voters. Another method is to give power to larger groups of elected individuals who do not have to follow party lines. In the opposite direction you would give power ...
Pick and mix your allocation of blame between some Tory right-wing MPs and some political journalists, between deliberate deceit and genuine confusion as you wish, but as the dust settles on yesterday's political stories about the Queen's Speech the news is remarkably dull: A Bill that was not going to be in the Queen's Speech will not be in the Queen's Speech, and A Bill that was going to be in the Queen's Speech will be in the Queen's Speech. Or in other words, ignore the nonsense about how the absence of an equal marriage Bill from the Queen's Speech ...
It appears that the Packhorse at Southstoke is closing to be converted into offices, another victim of cheap alcohol sold by supermarkets. Numerous pubs are closing every week, the Rose and Laurel has had its planning application to be converted into three houses approved. This doesn't help the community and community spirit or are we supposed to all meet at the superstore !
It would be nice if Nick Clegg made more of the fact that of all the political parties, it was the Liberal Democrats who kept Rupert Murdoch and News International at the end of a very long stick. In contrast both Labour and the Tories seem to be up to their necks in mire. This news item in today's Telegraph underlines that point. They report on claims that Andy Coulson held shares in News Corporation while he worked in Downing Street as a senior adviser to the Prime Minister. They suggest that this holding means that the fomer No 10 ...
Update: I can't believe I forgot to mention one of the highlights of the campaign, which was Meri's Dad coming over from Vancouver to help. Obviously it's wonderful to see him enjoying his daughter's victory. It was also highly enjoyable sitting around stuffing envelopes and swapping jokes for a few hours, while he winds up the candidate as only a father can. This year was my first time helping win an election, which turns out to be a remarkably good feeling. So well done Ricky Duveen, Peter Beard and Meri O'Connell. Ricky and Peter are Lib Dem councillors in my ...
Half a century down, how many more to go? Leicester's Mayor sacks the man supposed to scrutinise him – As many cities reject the idea of an elected Mayor, Jonathan Calder provides an example of why mayors don't make for good governance. Electoral Reform RIP – One year on and Milena Popova is still angry. I think she's right to be, and for those people who think that the change of the electoral system is just around the corner, I suggest talking to the Australian republicans who voted no in their referendum to see how long they've been waiting. The ...
Cambridgeshire County Council is organising a Cyclist's Breakfast tomorrow morning between 7:30 and 8:30am on the village green to celebrate the completion of the Cottenham to Histon Cycle Route. Cyclists will enjoy free refreshments and there is a free bike check-up on offer from Stations Cycles. The poster is below;
Francois Hollande has been elected French President, after promising to work for more growth and to renegotiate the EU fiscal compact. Initial results from the Greek parliamentary elections suggest a shake-up, with the left-wing Syriza party and a neo-Nazi party gaining ground at the expense of the two old coalition parties, New Democracy and Pasok. There is talk of the new government (when and if it emerges to be sworn in by the men in beards) seeking to "amend" the EU bail-out package for the country. What does it all mean? Are these welcome outbreaks of democracy which will lead ...
Congratulations to the French on having elected a president determined to challenge the monetarist hegemony and introduce policies designed to produce growth and create employment. All Keynesians will watch his progress with rather more than sympathetic interest, as his success or otherwise will have reverberations far beyond France. Interesting that the French electors have supported a politician who is not afraid to propose a marginal income tax rate of 75%. Cowardly Liberal Democrats, who were once proud to be the only party proposing a 50% rate, please note. If the new Greek government, when it is formed, can persuade its ...
I have today welcomed assurances from the City Council that worn road junction markings coming out of the Logie Estate are to be refreshed in the near future. Back in February, at the request of local residents, I raised with the City Council's Roads Maintenance Partnership the fact that the white lines at the exit of Elm Street to the very busy Blackness Road were worn to such an extent that they are no longer barely visible. It is important in terms of road safety that junction lines are clear to drivers. Given this is still outstanding, I asked the ...
Two years ago Nick Clegg was boasting the Lib Dems were the new one nation party - able to take the fight to the Tories in their southern heartlands - while simultaneously being a force in Labour bastions in the north of England and Scotland and Wales. In fact just 370 or so days ago a large number of the largest provincial cities up and down the UK had Lib Dem administrations. Last year's rout put Labour back in charge and they have consolidated their position with an equally massive swing last Thursday. Despite Lib Dem ministers protestations, things haven't ...
